In a power monitoring system, various installations send electrical data from data collection nodes to a data collection server. This collected data may then be processed (e.g., filtered, aggregated, etc.) or extracted from a database by an application program. The application program typically utilizes a number of assemblies (e.g., dynamically linked libraries (DLL)) to process the data. These assemblies are dynamically linked with the application program that uses them during program execution rather than being compiled with the main program. The advantage of such assemblies is that, because they need not be loaded into random access memory (RAM) together with the application program, space is saved in the RAM. When and if an assembly is needed, it is loaded into the RAM and run by the application program.
Typical application programs hard code the load sequence for the various assemblies into the application program itself. As such, when the load sequence for the assemblies is to be modified (e.g., the order of the assemblies is changed or an assembly is added or deleted) a programmer must modify the source code and recompile the application program to carry out such a modification.
Thus, a need exists for an improved apparatus and method. The present invention is directed to satisfying one or more of these needs and solving other problems.